College Football Nation: Playoff won't mean end of championship controversy

If you paid close enough attention last weekend, you realized something. If you watched closely enough, thought beyond just Auburn’s inclusion in the BCS tiotle game after Ohio State was excluded with its loss to Michigan State, you realized that had this been next year, there would have been controversy.

If you paid close enough attention last weekend, you realized something.

The final BCS poll ever was released Sunday night, and it listed Florida State No. 1 and Auburn No. 2, so it’s those teams that will meet Jan. 6 in Pasadena to play for the national championship.

With their selection, there was no controversy.

The BCS, thanks to the clear emergence of the Seminoles and Tigers above all others, worked in its last season in a way it hasn’t in many others since 1998. Often there was a clear No. 1 after the regular season but a muddled picture when it came to who was No. 2 with two, three, and in 2007 even more with legitimate claims to that second spot in the season’s ultimate game.

“We all complain about the BCS,” Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said Sunday night after the matchup was announced, “but isn’t it funny how often they get it right.”

Well, not really Jimbo, but it got it right this year.

Next year, of course, there will be a four-team playoff, eliminating that potential controversy over the second participant in the BCS title game.

But if you watched closely enough, thought beyond just Auburn’s inclusion after Ohio State was excluded with its loss to Michigan State, you realized that had this been next year, there would have been controversy.

While Florida State, Auburn, and Alabama would have been locks to be among the chosen four, three teams would have had legitimate claims to being the fourth — Michigan State, Baylor, and Stanford.

The lesson, therefore, is that while controversy reigned so often during the BCS era, it won’t be eliminated by the playoff. Instead of consternation over No. 2, however, it simply shifts to No. 4.

It will be better than before, because any team that is fighting for a claim to be the fourth-best has done at least something wrong — there have never been four unbeaten teams from the power conferences — whereas teams fighting for a claim to be the second-best have sometimes done nothing wrong, and if they have erred it was at least less egregious than someone a few spots lower in the rankings.

But imagine, for a moment, if this were next year. We would have been wringing our hands over the Spartans vs. the Cardinal vs. the Bears.

All have faults, but all have strengths as well.

Michigan State went 12-1, beat the No. 2 team in the country to win the Big Ten championship, led the nation in total defense, and its only loss came in controversial fashion to eight-win Notre Dame. But before playing the Buckeyes, the Spartans hadn’t played a team that ended the season in the rankings.

Baylor went 11-1, won the Big 12, had big wins over Texas and Oklahoma, and led the country in scoring. Yet the Bears not only lost once, but got blown out by 32 points at Oklahoma State.

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Stanford went 11-2 with a schedule perhaps tougher than any played by an SEC team, beat six ranked team including Oregon, and won the Pac-12, which may have been better than the SEC this year. But the Cardinal lost twice, and one of them came against Utah.

So whose resume is better among those three?

It’s impossible to judge. All have legitimate cases for, and legitimate ones against. And two of the three would be screaming from the rooftops if this were next year.

Still, just because the BCS worked without controversy this season and a four-team playoff would have led to teams with legitimate arguments being left out doesn’t mean there should be pause about what’s to come.

In truth, the BCS got lucky this season.

If Ohio State had beaten Michigan State last Saturday night, plenty of people would have been up in arms.

It would have meant the undefeated Buckeyes, not Auburn’s one-loss Tigers, would have met the unbeaten Seminoles. It seems simple, two teams with unblemished records meeting for the national title.

But a team from the SEC has claimed each of the last seven national championships, and one-loss Auburn, which beat top-ranked Alabama and two other teams ranked in the top 10 at the time the Tigers played them, would have been shut out.

The SEC, in a sense, wouldn’t have had the chance to defend its title.

Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs claimed it would be “a disservice to college football” if a one-loss SEC champion were left out in favor of Ohio State, given the strength of schedule played by teams in the SEC. He even said it would be “un-American.”

Jacobs is wrong, but when Florida State or Ohio State celebrated after winning, even though they would have been the right teams to play for the national title, something would have felt hollow about the championship without an SEC team being the vanquished one.

So the BCS avoided controversy this year. But it didn’t in 2003, 2004, 2011, and at least seven other years.

Next year, thankfully, there will be a playoff. But don’t expect all controversy to disappear.

What We Learned

With the Heisman almost assuredly going to Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston — don’t be fooled by the large number of invitees to New York; it likely means Winston won big but the race for second was close between the other five — and big news happening down in Texas, there’s really little reason to talk Heisman.

There is reason to talk Mack Brown, however.

“There’s been a little speculation about my job situation,” Brown was quoted as saying earlier this week. “We’re not here to talk about me. My situation has not changed.”

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Brown, first reported by Orangebloods.com and confirmed by other media outlets, is going to resign.

It’s the right thing to do for Texas, and it’s the right thing to do for his legacy.

Despite riches from the Longhorn Network and resources perhaps unmatched in all of college football, Brown hasn’t been able to keep the Longhorns among the nation’s elite over the past few seasons, and this year, when it seemed they may be poised climb back toward the top of the rankings, instead they looked awful in losing early games to BYU and Ole Miss and wound up a mediocre 8-4.

Texas has had plenty of talent, but has been soft since playing Alabama for the national title in 2009.

And soft and mediocre don’t fly for long at Texas. So it’s time for Brown to pass the reins of the program on to someone new.

The speculation is that it will happen soon, by Friday when the Longhorns hold their team banquet.

There was speculation early in the season, after the loss to BYU, that Brown might be fired. Instead, he fired defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, and the team did seem to improve. But it didn’t live up to expectations, and hasn’t since going 12-1 in 2009.

With a new athletic director in place at Texas, it’s possible Brown will be fired if he doesn’t resign.

“We continue to discuss the future of Texas football,” AD Steve Patterson said in a statement. “Mack Brown has not resigned. And, no decisions have been made.”

Despite this year’s turmoil, and the struggles of the past few, Brown, assuming he steps down, will leave behind a tremendous legacy at Texas.

When he arrived in 1998, the Longhorns had slipped badly under David McWilliams and John Mackovic. They were overshadowed in the Big 12 by Nebraska and Oklahoma. But things changed quickly under Brown, with three nine-win seasons followed by a pair of 11-win campaigns.

In 2005, with Vince Young playing one of the finest games in college football history — running for more than 200 yards and passing for more than 200 as well — Texas upset heavily favored USC, Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush and all, to win the 2005 national championship.

There was a 12-1 season in 2008 when perhaps the Longhorns should have played for the national title but were screwed by the BCS, and they went 12-0 the following year before losing to the Crimson Tide in the BCS Championship Game.

Simply, Texas football was resurrected by Mack Brown.

And though the Longhorns have slipped, it’s that run of greatness — 128 wins in his first 12 seasons in Austin with one national championship and six Big 12 South titles — for which Brown will be remembered.

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Game of the Week

It’s a time to stand and salute.

Just one game will be played this week, just as only one game is played this week between the conference championship games and the start of the bowls each season.

It’s Army vs. Navy, the one game that deserves the eyes of everyone given the commitment and sacrifice of the men on each sideline.

The Midshipmen enter 7-4 and are headed to the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, where they will face Middle Tennessee State. The Black Knights, meanwhile, are just 3-8.

Both are among the nation’s leaders in rushing yardage, utilizing option attacks, but both give up a lot of yardage on the ground. In fact, the difference between the teams is slight, with Navy able to win more of the close games than Army. So even though their records are very different, expect a close game.

Army and Navy will play as hard as any two teams to beat each other on Saturday. Afterward, with the understanding that they just played — not fought or battled, and certainly not waged war — many on the field will hang up their cleats for the final time, and once they graduate move on to active service in the military.

They deserve the spotlight.

My Top 5

1. Florida State (13-0): Perhaps Auburn will be the team that finally tests the Noles.

2. Auburn (12-1): The Tigers may be playing as well as anyone in the country.

3. Alabama (11-1): The Tide are one missed field goal return from playing for a third straight national title.